For the better part of two decades, Stephen Douglas was the most famous and controversial politician in the United States, a veritable "steam engine in britches," as he was popularly known. Abraham Lincoln was merely Douglas's most persistent rival within their adopted home state of Illinois, known mainly for his droll sense of humor, bad jokes, and slightly nutty wife. This dual biography tells how these two radically different individuals rose to the top rung of American politics and how their personal rivalry may have insured Lincoln's ascendancy, as well as looking at the personal side of rough-and-tumble politics on the western frontier.